Real Love: love is kind

Big thanks to my friend, Catie, who inspired me with this gem to keep writing & thinking about real love.

I looked at my wordpress stats from this past year, and I posted a meager four times! Sure, I posted on my website, for work and for a collaborative blog from time to time, but here, just. four. times.

The reason this is so not okay (with me) is because this site has been the home to my mental wanderings and spiritual searchings since college. This is the place where I spread paint on the paper, explore ideas, and share bits of my craft.

I began the real love series with an intent to finish it week by week… annnddd only got through week one. But 2016 is my year! I am committing to post (at least!) the 11 times it takes to cover this series with the hopes that I leave 2016 a better person and a more consistent writer.

How it began

It all started with a journey through Corinthians with some of the best people around and one of the most beloved, over-quoted and under-practiced passages of the bible–a passage even that even the ‘secular’ world can’t help but quote.

4 (A)Love is patient and (B)kind; love (C)does not envy or boast; it (D)is not arrogant5 or rude. It(E)does not insist on its own way; it (F)is not irritable or resentful;[a]6 it (G)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but (H)rejoices with the truth.7 (I)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, (J)endures all things.- Corinthians 13:4-7.

I want to dig into this, get it under my fingernails and stop taking it for granted. Because, quite simply, love is worth it.

I hope this journey is one you’ll join because my perspective is just a pinprick of light on a topic that deserves illumination. Check out the first post, fishermen lovers (love is patient) if you like, and join in to share your stories, comments, and wisdom on real love.

Love is Kind

It seems so silly, but as I sat thinking about what kindness really is, the adage, “be kind, rewind” came scuttling out of the cobwebs of my mind. Weird, but just what I needed to remember.

Because even though video cassettes are a blip on the radar of my life, I still remember dreading the rewind. Rewinding was a pain! Especially if your VCR player was old and you had to hold the button down the whole time.

It took time; it wasn’t convenient. And it required a little thought about the person who would be next to pop in the video, sit down with a greasy bowl of microwave popcorn and find only a screen of fuzzy black and white.

The days of bulky cassettes are long gone, thank goodness. But the concept remains. Kindness takes time, isn’t convenient and requires thought about someone other than ourselves.

It seems obvious. But despite that, I think kindness is still incredible rare.

First, because we are a culture that is far to busy. We fill our lives with work and play, hobbies and relationships–most of which are selected based on how they boost ourself*. Even the interstices between often become moments where impatience or apathy take over instead of opportunities to show kindness.

*And, I think it’s fairly accurate to say, we are obsessed with ourselves. It’s really really hard not to be. We don’t live in anyone else’s mind, so, naturally, we are the center of our own universe. It takes real, conscious effort to step out of that centerstage and put someone else there for even a moment.

Kindness is not easy. It’s engineered with all sorts of intention, qualities that take work. It’s a crazy conglomerate of politeness, thoughtfulness, patience, encouraging words, and helpful actions.

But. When kindness finds you, when you choose it. It does something incredible. It calls us to be greater than we truly are. And, it multiples, a ripple effect far wider than we can ever know.

Once chosen, kindness is the thread that connects it all. The thousandth echo of the the One who embodied it in purest form.